Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3: Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2

by Belinda White

  He nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I do. But you do know that limits the days we can actually get married to basically one a month, right?”

  Hence our current discussion on the matter. We’d been engaged now going on two whole months, and we still weren’t any closer to setting a date for the happy occasion. I’ll admit my one requirement of a full moon did put a bit of a hamper on things.

  “I still say that Halloween would be perfect. It falls on a Saturday, so a late-night wedding wouldn’t inconvenience anyone, and the moon will be full. Perfect, if you ask me.”

  Now I was the one on the receiving end of the look. He’d gotten pretty good at that Ravenswind look over the years. Even if he wasn’t blood-related. Thank the Goddess. If he was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

  “You really want to wait almost half a year to get married? Personally, I’d like something a lot sooner than that.”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek, considering the options. Full moons didn’t just conveniently happen on the weekends. There was always next month, June, when the full moon would at least be on a Friday night. But that was only a month away. Planning a wedding took time.

  Orville pulled out his cell phone and brought up a calendar showing the full moons. “How about June 5th? Full moon, Friday... and not almost six months away.”

  Plus, it wasn’t on Halloween night. He’d never really come right out and said it, but I truly felt that was the real issue here. Orville didn’t want to be married on Halloween. I couldn’t understand why not. If nothing else, it would make forgetting our anniversary practically impossible.

  “You know how much work goes into planning a wedding?”

  He grinned at me. “Oh, come on, how hard could it possibly be?” Then he sobered a little, his eyes meeting mine with a touch of worry in them. “We are still keeping it to close friends and family, right?”

  “That is correct. But even with just a few dozen guests, there are things to be done. We’ll need to arrange food, a wedding cake, invitations, my dress and your tux, someone to officiate...” I could easily have gone on, but he reached out and put a finger on my lips. A pretty effective way to get me to stop talking.

  “We make a dang good team, Opal. We can do this. You know we can.”

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you volunteering to help with the planning?”

  The grin was back. “Well, you aren’t the only one getting married, you know. Of course, I’ll help.” He gave a somewhat dramatic pause. “In fact, I’ll take care of the preacher myself.”

  That had been one of my early compromises. I had to make some. Orville was right. I wasn’t the only one getting married here. And having a preacher say the words somehow made it ‘official’ in his eyes. Who was I to say no to that?

  Besides, to my mind, the Goddess would be the true one giving our marriage her blessing. That was what really mattered to me. Not that she’d be there in all her shining glory. Although, now that I thought about it, that wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. If she did come, though, and there was a preacher involved, I hoped She would add a bit more to her wardrobe. It might not be a bad idea to have a slip on-hand for her, just in case.

  Though who in their right mind would be brave enough to ask her to actually wear it?

  “I take it you’ve already asked Reverend Castle then?”

  “Yup. He was a little shaky about the whole late-night thing, but I got an okay from him all the same. It’s not exactly like we’ll have to compete with another wedding at that time of night, is it? So he should be free.”

  I snuggled a little closer into his side as I thought about it. It would be nice to have this on an every night basis. And that wouldn’t happen with my old-fashioned fiancé until we said our 'I do's. Besides, he was right about the whole team thing. Plus, I was pretty sure I could recruit family members to help out too.

  “Okay. June 5th it is.” Goddess help me, we were really going to do this thing.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes. When I felt his body tense slightly, I knew that something was up. I was right. What can I say? I know my man.

  “I have something I probably need to tell you. But first, you have to promise no magic on this one. I handle it, okay?”

  I pulled away enough to see his face. He was dead serious. How did a witch answer that one? A promise for me was set into stone. How could I make a promise before I knew what I was promising not to do?

  “As much as I love you, Orville, I don’t do blanket promises. I’m gonna need a little something more to go on first.”

  He reached up to scrub at his chin. “Kind of figured that would be your answer.” Well, yeah. My man knew me too.

  “And?”

  Orville took a deep breath. “Some people at the office aren’t all that happy about me getting married.”

  I laughed and snuggled back in. Like that was news. I’d known that would happen. He had a fair number of female deputies on his small force. It was only reasonable to think more than a few had secret crushes on the man. They couldn’t be too happy about the upcoming nuptials at all. Kind of made me glad we had decided on an earlier date, actually.

  “Well, that wasn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting.”

  I was still chuckling. “Oh, Orville, you sweet, sweet man. Of course there are people not happy about you getting married.” I paused for just a second. “And I’m gonna take a wild way out there guess and say that most of them are female.”

  His head swiveled down to look at me. “How did you know that?”

  The chuckles grew to a full belly laugh. “I’m a woman too. If I found out that you were marrying anybody else but me, I’d be upset too.”

  He shook his head. “No, that isn’t it at all. I think they’re more upset that I’m not running for reelection.”

  Now my laughing stopped. “You thinking about changing your mind on that?”

  “No. I’ve been sheriff of this district long enough.” His arm squeezed me a little tighter. “Besides, I honestly can’t wait to start our next adventure. Together.”

  “Me too.” I hesitated. “Look, Orville, I honestly don’t know how you feel about what you see in the mirror every morning. But you are a very strikingly handsome man.” I reached over and squeezed his arm. “Good muscles too. A real catch. Those women are just jealous it isn’t them going down that aisle with you. And that’s the Goddess’s honest truth.”

  “We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one, Opal.”

  Made no difference to me. I knew I was the one with the right way of thinking here. But the more I thought about it, the more uncertain I became of the whole situation. I didn’t really like the idea of a flock of females trying to talk my man out of getting married.

  Especially that red-headed Trixie he had working on dispatch. Orville had once had a thing for redheads, as evidenced by his very red-headed son, Opie. It wouldn’t do to have her pulling out all the stops to get his attention this late in the game.

  “I’m also gonna guess that the ringleader in the anti-marriage campaign is Trixie.”

  He didn’t confirm it, but he squirmed. Just a little. Enough to let me know that I had hit the nail dead center on the head.

  “Maybe I should go and have a little talk with her?”

  “No!” Orville cleared his throat. “I mean, no. As I said, I want you to trust me to handle this.” He leaned down and gave me a soft kiss. “Can you trust me to take care of this?”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. Trusting him wasn’t the problem. Not even a little bit. The problem was trusting that redheaded Trixie.

  THE NEXT MORNING, ORVILLE had already left for work before I woke up. Yes, things had changed a little in our relationship. Now that the public at large knew we were a couple, there was no more reason for sneaking around, or for me heading home late at night after our standard Tuesday date night.

  Now, I just stayed over. Funny how my old-fashioned beau had a problem with livi
ng together, but the odd and end one night here and there was more than fine with him. Made me kind of wonder if he was really as okay with living at the farmhouse as he’d said he was.

  But then again, that whole thing had been his idea. I might just be reading too much into things. I did that sometimes.

  I stretched out, enjoying the peace and quiet of a morning ritual that didn’t involve getting kids and a baby ready to go. One day a week, Kimberly handled that on her own. I’d be missing this once we were actually married. It was kind of nice.

  To make it up to Kimberly, I opened the shop on my own Wednesday mornings and gave her the morning off. Her normal routine was to take the kids to school and then run personal errands until time to come in.

  Today was a bit different as the older kids were off school for some kind of teacher paperwork day. The bad news was she didn’t get those few hours to herself. The good news was they all got to sleep in. It evened out.

  I glanced over at the clock. I had another hour before my alarm would go off. As much as I was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep, now that we had an actual wedding date, there were things I needed to get a jump on.

  My first goal was to order the blooming cake. My first thought had been to have my sister, Sapphire, make it. But while you can’t beat her baked goods, she wasn’t really up on decorating them for show. People came to her muffin shop for the way the muffins tasted and how they made them feel, not for how pretty they were. Trust me on that one.

  The Flour Pot was my first choice. In fact, right now, they were my only choice. I was that set on them. They’d expanded their business into catering and, yes, wedding cakes. Their cakes weren’t all that extravagant, but they had that pretty fondant icing and came in as many tiers as you were willing to pay for.

  I figured a smaller three-tier cake would do just fine. Or maybe even a two-tier cake with the bride and groom topper, and then some fancy cupcakes for the kidlings. I was willing to trust the Flour Pot for guidance on that one.

  At least, that had been my plan. But when I showed up at their small little counter in their small little dining room, they turned my order down flat.

  “I don’t understand. I thought you all did wedding cakes now.” I glanced pointedly over at the small decorated wedding cake in the display case.

  The owner flushed but shook his head. “We do, but I’m afraid we’re totally booked up well into July.” He glanced at me sternly. “A month’s notice is not nearly enough for a well-crafted wedding cake, you know. We don’t knock those out in a day. And June is a very popular month for weddings.” He tusked. “Everyone wants that perfect June wedding. Like May or July isn’t just as good.”

  I forced my brain away from the fact that an October wedding would have been no issue at all with the cake. Unfortunately, that did me no good now that June 5th was all but written in stone. I’d just have to go somewhere else.

  “Can you recommend another place?”

  He just looked at me, with one eyebrow flying high. “Weren’t you listening? If you want a well-crafted wedding cake, you need to give more than a few weeks’ notice. Good luck finding a place that can fit you in this late.”

  I was more than a little deflated when I left the shop. So deflated, in fact, that I had decided to drown my troubles in Raspberry Delight donuts and coffee. And I even bought some to share with my man and his entire office.

  My motives for sharing were purely altruistic, too. It wasn’t that I wanted to make a point to Trixie that I was here to stay.

  Nope. Not my intention at all. And I’d keep telling myself that too.

  Chapter 2

  Orville didn’t seem too surprised by my impromptu visit. But then he didn’t seem too bothered by it, either. Of course, there were Flour Pot donuts involved. How could he possibly be upset about that?

  After dropping them off, and making sure to say a bright hello to the redheaded Trixie on my way out, I headed for the shop. I know it seems kind of backward for a shop owner to admit, but I was really hoping for a slow morning.

  I wouldn’t be able to rest easy until I had this cake issue in hand. The warning I’d gotten from the Flour Pot’s owner had me more than a little concerned.

  It was really odd, this whole getting emotional about a wedding thing. I’d have never thought in a million years that I’d be like this. All caught up in making it a perfect day. Shoot, in the past, I’d kind of looked down on all those frantic brides.

  Of course, that was back in the day I never pictured myself as one. A bride, that is. Marriage just didn’t seem to be in the cards for me. Orville had changed all that.

  And now I got the frantic bride thing. I had one month to bring together a once in a lifetime day. The pressure was staggering.

  The first thing I did was make a list. Mainly so that I could have the pleasure of crossing an item off it. The preacher part of the affair was being handled by Orville. Good as done, according to him. One item down.

  No sooner had I crossed the item off and pulled over the phone book to start looking for bakeries than the shop’s bell rang out. Well, that hadn’t lasted long.

  Customers came in and out of the shop all morning. I was still doing a brisk pace when Kimberly and the kids came in at noon.

  The saint of a woman handed me a bag of Chinese takeout and took over the front counter. The older kids headed upstairs to their home away from home, fully stocked with chairs, a television, and games and toys galore.

  Baby Pearl came into the back with me. I needed her calming presence. Now more than ever.

  Too bad that wasn’t what I got.

  No. What I got was a fussy and very irritated baby. After changing her diaper, which was barely even wet, and giving her a bottle, the fussing continued. Another five minutes and I was ducking back into the front of the shop.

  “You have any idea what’s up with baby Pearl? I can’t seem to make her happy.”

  Kimberly looked at me and sighed. “She’s teething. Nothing makes her happy right now.” She hesitated. “I can take her up here with me if you want.”

  I glanced around the busy shop. An irritated baby would not be good for business at all. And if word got out about it, it could mean a serious downturn in our customer base. Not worth it in the long run.

  “That’s okay. If I can’t get her settled down, I’ll enlist Nancy to take her upstairs with them.”

  Kimberly nodded. “That would be great.” She paused to cash out a customer, then looked back to me. “I picked up a couple of teething rings from the store on the way in. They’re in her bag. But they work better cold.”

  “I’ll give her one now to try and put the other in the freezer for a bit.” With a plan in mind, I turned toward the dividing curtain again.

  “Make sure you wash them first.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and gave her one of my looks. The girl didn’t get them often, but she knew it for what it was.

  “Sorry,” she said smiling at me. “Forgot who I was talking to there for a minute.”

  I gave her a curt nod and ducked into the back. The teething ring helped, at least for a short bit. I’d take what I could get. When Nancy and Mason came downstairs an hour later, I still hadn’t had a chance to make my first call.

  However, I did have a whole list of places to try. I was taking to heart the advice that this might not be a simple matter of calling one or two to do a price match. At this point, I’d dig into my savings if I had to. I just wanted a nice, professionally decorated two-tier bloody cake with a stupid bride and groom doll at the top. How hard could that possibly be to do?

  Before the kids made it to the back door to start their ritual morning walk, I stopped them. I’d recently purchased an old-fashioned baby carriage for the shop, and I’d seen the covert glances Nancy had thrown at the thing. I kind of figured she wanted it for one of her dolls, but the item was far too expensive to be used as a mere toy.

  Now, however, that could totally work in my favor. Funny h
ow I’d never even thought of actually using it for baby Pearl. Time to remedy that.

  “Nancy, why don’t you go in and nab that baby carriage and take baby Pearl along for your walk?”

  Her eyes didn’t light up like I thought they would. Instead, she cast a somewhat wary glance down at baby Pearl. When she saw the baby gnawing on the teething ring, she gave a slow nod. “I guess we could do that.”

  Within minutes, the kids were out the door, and the shop was peaceful again. At least the back part of it. If I’d been a better friend and boss, I probably would have gone up to help Kimberly with the sudden bang-up day we were having. But first things first. I had some calls to make.

  A DOZEN CALLS LATER and I still had no cake on order. I was desperate enough to pull up a search on the internet for home-made wedding cakes. In a pinch, they would have to do. I did like the little ornate tower of cupcakes. My only question was, where would the tiny bride and groom dolls go? I really wanted them on top of an actual cake, dang it.

  I wasn’t quite ready to give up on that want yet, either. Maybe with a good month’s notice, Sapphire could learn the whole fondant thing? In fact, she might even consider it a fun challenge. After all, we were very different witches to have come from the same mother.

  The kitchen definitely wasn’t my domain, but Sapphire was most at home there. You could tell with the quality of the food we made too. Even if the cake wouldn’t be as gorgeous as I wanted it to be, I knew that a cake crafted by her would be delicious none the less.

  It was a failsafe plan. My wedding cake Plan B.

  Having a backup plan did help my nerves a bit. I’d been beginning to think my wedding day was doomed right from the get-go.

  It wasn’t a feeling I liked. But if a home-made cake was the least of my problems, then I could deal with that. Only if I absolutely had to, mind you, but I could.

  Since I had my computer all booted up, I used it to do a quick search of what I would need for a proper wedding day. That was the totally wrong thing to do. I almost hyperventilated when I saw the length of the lists that came up.